


Personal Conversations

by distractionpie



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bly doesn't start shit with Jedi, Brotherly protectiveness, But he finishes it, Humour, M/M, Minor CC-5052 | Bly/Aayla Secura, Shovel Talk, established relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27374998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distractionpie/pseuds/distractionpie
Summary: When Master Vos invades his office in a less than official capacity to make insinuations about his relationship with his General, Bly takes the opportunity to make a few unprofessional points of his own.
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox/Quinlan Vos, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 128





	Personal Conversations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Peppsta](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppsta/gifts).



Of all the people to be knocking at his office door, Bly was not expecting Quinlan Vos.

"If you're looking for General Secura, she's on the bridge," he offered. Technically the room he was in was meant to be a General's office, but Aayla had offered the space for him to use rather than the overcrowded workroom the ship's designers had deemed adequate for all clone officers, on the basis that she thought better on the move rather than confined to quarters. Her former master ought to know that about her.

"Actually," Vos said, stepping inside without waiting for the permission he didn't technically need as all Jedi outranked the clones. "I'm here to talk to you."

Bly frowned. 

There was no good reason for that. Any military matter ought to go through the Jedi council or Aayla, Vos might be her master but he wasn’t in Bly’s direct chain of command. But given Vos’s place in both the war and Aayla’s life, Bly was curious enough not to complain as Vos settled in Bly’s own seat at the desk.

It was a power move, but a foolish one. Most of the people who visited Bly in this office were men under his command who needed his support. The guest chair was the comfier one and Bly took it gladly. 

For a moment Vos sat in silence, surveying Bly. Then, “I hear you and Aayla are growing close.”

“I’m General Secura’s second in command,” Bly pointed out. “It’s a position that requires a lot of trust.”

“I’m sure it’s not the only position which requires trust,” Vos said.

Bly raised an eyebrow. “Of course not sir. General Secura knows that all of her men are dependable, and we have confidence in her leadership.”

Vos rolled his eyes. “Don’t play dumb, Commander Bly, it’s not convincing.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, General Vos.”

“I’m not a General,” Vos corrected. “And you know exactly what I mean. Your relationship with Aayla goes far beyond the professional.”

He’s right, but if Vos is bringing it up then he’s not acting as a Jedi master speaking to a GAR commander. While they're being discreet to avoid causing a stir, there are no regs relating to what he and Aayla have - if only because the writers never considered it might happen. And Aayla had been very clear that, while she loves and respects her mentor, she's a grown woman and any attempt from Vos to meddle in her personal affairs is to be firmly rebuffed and that she'll back Bly to the end if anybody tries to fault him for standing that ground.

“Oh, is this a personal conversation?” Bly asked.

Rolling his eyes, Vos said, “Since you seem to have embarked upon a personal relationship with my padawan, yes.”

“Good, because I’ve been wanting a personal conversation with you for a while now.”

Vos stopped. Blinked.

Bly smiled. He’d been concerned when he thought Vos might be here on business, but the Jedi inviting him to cross this boundary was very convenient.

“Really?” Vos sounded dubious. “Did Aayla tell you to--” 

“Oh no, Aayla doesn’t give me orders regarding personal matters,” he corrected. “And I’m sure she’ll have plenty to say to you once I tell her you came by my office to discuss her relationship choices without her present. This is about Fox.”

Bly was not force sensitive. According to the Kaminoans, clones weren’t capable of it, although they’d never been specific as to if that was because of their progenitor or how they came into being. But Bly would swear until his dying day that he’d  _ felt  _ Vos’s stomach drop.

“Fox?”

“Don’t play dumb, Master Vos, it’s not convincing.”

“I’m not sure how it’s any business of yours,” Vos protested, which was at least not a denial. "I got the impression Fox wasn't close with his... batchmates."

"Well of course not, he's stationed on Coruscant and most battles take place in the mid or outer rim," Bly replied, deliberately obtuse. But mentally he awarded a point to Vos for using 'batchmates' correctly and knowing Bly was one of Fox’s, most natborns who didn't work closely with clones never bothered to learn the distinctions in their relationships with each other. It brought Vos's total to an unimpressive three - the other two coming from Aayla's fondness for him and being a Jedi.

Vos was right though -- Fox probably wouldn't be happy to know Bly was doing this. The brothers who were pulled from their batches for medical or pilot training tended to maintain those bonds and reintegrate once that training was done, but those selected for the Guard and diplomatic duties had stayed distant and it was hard to rebuild that connection when they got so little time on Coruscant and even then the Guard were so busy. But the fact Fox was alone, no batchmates or even squadmates to back him up, made it all the more important that Bly kept what lookout he could.

“It’s interesting though, that you’d have an opinion on Fox’s relationship with us,” Bly mused. "When I'd heard you weren't fond of clones."

"Can't like who you've never met," Vos deflected. "And the work of a shadow doesn't bring me close to the army often."

Yet plenty of people managed to dislike the clones without ever having met them, and Vos had found opportunity among his work to become entangled with Bly’s batchmate. 

“Yet you managed to get close to Fox,” Bly pointed out. “As you said, you’re no General, and the Jedi and the Coruscant Guard’s have very separate areas of jurisdiction.”

Vos pulled a face. “I had a shadow mission that involved some light trespassing on military facilities. My target drew the attention of one of the guards and I couldn’t evade without tipping the target off that I wasn’t the common criminal I was pretending to be. Once I was being processed, I told them I was a Jedi so there was no need to bother, which I guess is the sort of thing that gets passed right up the chain because the next thing I knew it was Commander Fox taking my mugshot.”

“A mugshot? For an undercover jedi?”

Vos grinned. “He confirmed my identity and agreed not to file charges, but he pointed out that not following procedure or letting me go early would be suspicious and damage my cover. I spent a full two rotation hold in a security cell before I was released due to ‘lack of evidence’.” 

Good for Fox. But Bly hardly saw how that could lead to the kind of involvement he’d heard rumours of.

“That doesn’t sound like a very good first impression.”

“Smart? Stubborn? A sense of humour?” Vos’s frown seemed genuine. “It’s a rare person to treat a Jedi just like anybody else, let alone improve my plan, why wouldn’t I respect him for that?”

“I meant of you.”

Fox had possessed a sense of humour as a cadet, but Bly was pretty sure Coruscant had ground it out of him, and it was hard to imagine him being anything but displeased by Vos interfering with his work.

“Well, the ‘thanks for the hospitality’ fruit basket I sent probably didn’t hurt.”

Bribery. Fox seemed even less likely to be impressed by that than Vos’s humour. Possibly Vos picked up on Bly’s scepticism because he added, “I was flexing a lot when I delivered it?”

Urgh.

Vos was about as far from Bly’s type as it was possible to be, but he could concede that Vos’s brand of tall and muscular and unafraid of showing both advantages off could probably have some appeal. Fox would not be the first trooper to engage in an inadvisable hook-up to ease some tension, though he might be the first to pick a jedi for it. Still, the rumours which had reached Bly’s ears did not suggest a one off, which meant that Fox had to be at least tolerating Vos as a person. And given how picky Fox was about the company he kept, to be even tolerated meant that the Vos was closer to Fox than almost anyone else was allowed to get. It was a privileged position, dangerously so, and Bly doubted Vos, who always seemed so far above the petty concerns of clones, even realised it.

Which meant it was up to Bly to impress upon him how serious it was that Vos didn’t betray Fox’s trust.

“You must have seriously impressed him. That’s good, because if Fox were ever to be unhappy, I’d be unhappy too,” Bly remarked. He wouldn’t be able to do anything about that unhappiness, especially not if the cause of it was a jedi, but, “Aayla doesn’t like things that make me unhappy.”

He sat back in his chair, watching and waiting as the calculation worked its way across Vos’s face. Aayla was a far from neutral party, the same closeness which meant her displeasure would be so impactful if turned on Vos was a reason that a lesser person might think would cause her to side with him. But Bly knew Aayla. If Vos hurt Fox, it wouldn’t come down to her making a choice between standing with her lover in defence of his brother or clinging to her relationship with her mentor -- no, Aayla would make her decision based on what she knew to be right, which Bly was sure meant siding with Fox.

And he could see the moment Vos realised it too.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, and Bly scowled at him. It did matter. Could Vos really be so glib as to not even care for his former padawan’s disapproval? “To be the one to upset Fox would be punishment enough, don’t you think?”

They were nearly two years into the war, and Bly had been assigned to Aayla for most of that, which meant plenty of time working with Vos. And in all the time no matter if they were fighting seppies, dealing with trade federation conspiracies, or even in Vos’s and Aayla’s discussions of jedi matters, had he ever seen Vos look like he was taking things entirely seriously? The man always had an air of obnoxious amusement about him, like he was laughing at a joke that nobody else could know. But for once he looked completely serious.

Bly nodded.

“Now... back to your relationship with Aayla--”

But not serious enough to be fully distracted from his original goal.

Oh well, a clone could dream.

**Author's Note:**

> With much credit to Peppi for sharing the idea of Bly turning the tables on Quinlan in the [Vox discord server](https://discord.gg/zj3pEP839q).


End file.
